Selecting the right proprietary trading firm (prop firm) is crucial and involves multiple factors to ensure it matches your trading aspirations, preferences, and level of expertise. Consider the following essential aspects:
Cost: This is often the largest consideration when choosing a prop firm. Review all the costs associated with purchasing an account and decide what firm fits your needs. For a comprehensive look at all the costs you will incur on your way to funding check out OnlyPropFirms' True Cost to Funding.
Accounts: Assess the trading capital provided by the firm. While some offer substantial capital, this might come with more stringent profit shares or fees. Assess the amount of accounts allowed to be copied. Copy trading with multiple accounts allows you to maximize your leverage and returns.
Payouts: Familiarize yourself with the firm's profit split, frequency, and speed. This comparison will help you identify terms that best suit your financial goals, considering your financial situation and trading style.
Rules: Review the firm's rules and ensure they align with your trading style and preferences. What type of drawdown do they have? Can you trade news? Can you scalp? Etc.
Support: Seek out firms offering robust training, mentorship, and support, which is particularly beneficial for novice traders. Access to seasoned mentors and educational resources can vastly improve your trading skills. While access to support is paramount for security if and when issues arise.
Regulation and Reputation: Choose prop firms under the oversight of reputable financial bodies. Investigate their history, customer feedback, and any disciplinary measures they've faced. Luckily all the firms on the OnlyPropFirms website have been vetted and approved by our internal team.
Trading Platforms and Tools: Evaluate the firm's trading platforms and tools for user-friendliness, reliability, and whether they meet your strategic needs.
Trading Strategies and Markets: Verify if the firm caters to your preferred trading strategies and markets. Some firms are specialized, offering an advantage if they align with your interests.
Community and Networking: Evaluate the firm's community and networking possibilities. A supportive trading community can offer invaluable insights, collaborative opportunities, and support during tough times.
Through careful analysis and thorough research, you can identify a proprietary trading firm that matches your trading objectives and preferences. Below, an overview of the leading firms in the industry is provided, allowing you to compare their features and performance.
Overview:
To provide a clear comparison of the leading proprietary trading firms in the industry, we've consolidated various factors into a single chart. This visual representation enables you to easily evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each firm, assisting you in making an informed decision about which firm best aligns with your needs.
Cost: How attractive is the pricing?
Accounts: How many accounts sizes are offered, and how many accounts can you trade?
Payouts: How fast, how frequent, and how easy is it to take a payout?
Rules: How manageable, clear, and attractive are the rules?
Support: How fast, how transparent, and how reasonable is the support?
Apex Trader Funding - Overview
Summary: Apex stands out as a leading prop trading firm due to its unique combination of low costs and the opportunity to trade up to 20 accounts. This setup provides traders with increased access to capital and the ability to generate significant profits more frequently. While the firm's rules and support may not be as enticing as those of other companies, its track record speaks for itself. Apex has consistently outperformed its competitors by delivering substantial payouts to its traders, making it a top choice for those seeking lucrative opportunities in the industry.
Take Profit Trader - Overview
Summary: Take Profit Trader stands out as a highly reputable firm in the trading industry, renowned for its top-quality support and swift response times, ensuring traders receive the assistance they need promptly. While they may not offer the lowest costs, their standout feature is their industry-leading payout policy. With the ability to withdraw funds from a funded account on the very first day, they provide unparalleled flexibility and liquidity to traders. This exceptional payout policy alone justifies their slightly higher pricing, making Take Profit Trader a compelling choice for traders seeking both reliability and efficiency in their trading endeavors.
MyFundedFutures - Overview
Summary: MyFundedFutures has emerged as a significant player in the futures trading arena, garnering attention with their accessible pricing model. Their rules and program are designed to simplify the funding process, making it straightforward for traders to achieve their goals. Additionally, the firm's emphasis on excellent support and transparency contributes to its reputation as one of the most well-rounded prop trading firms in the industry.
Earn2Trade - Overview
Summary: Earn2Trade has established a solid reputation as a quality firm within the trading industry. Their impressive track record includes facilitating over 700 traders transitioning into live accounts last year, a testament to their commitment to setting traders up for success. The firm provides excellent support with rapid response times, alongside comprehensive online learning resources aimed at educating traders on achieving success in the markets. By offering information directly from the firm, Earn2Trade eliminates confusion and provides traders with reliable guidance, making them a preferred choice for those looking to excel in trading.
TradeDay - Overview
Summary: TradeDay may not be as widely recognized as some other firms, but they've quietly established themselves as a reliable player in the industry. Rather than investing in influencer marketing, they prioritize their traders and maintain a focus on their rules and support. While they may come with a slightly higher price tag, TradeDay offers some of the most attractive rules in the industry, including low profit targets that make it easier for traders to pass the evaluation stage. Their standout feature is their exceptional payout policy, which imposes no restrictions or requirements for traders to access their earnings. With a smaller pool of active traders, TradeDay is able to deliver top-notch support, dedicating their resources to assisting their existing traders and ensuring their success in the market.
BluSky - Overview
Summary: BluSky presents a straightforward and cost-effective option for traders, operating in a similar space as Apex but without the ability to trade as many accounts simultaneously. With BluSky, traders encounter a low barrier to entry during the evaluation stage, thanks to low profit targets and reasonable trailing drawdown. Their pricing is among the most competitive in the industry, often offering sales and featuring no activation fee upon entering a funded account, resulting in an exceptionally low True Cost to Funding. If you seek pricing akin to Apex, along with maximum micro sizing and a simple payout policy, BluSky stands out as an excellent choice for traders looking for affordability and ease of use.
UProfit - Overview
Summary: UProfit prioritizes providing traders with the optimal trading conditions necessary to excel in the market. Unlike firms that add unnecessary pressure, UProfit emphasizes simplicity and support, aiming to help traders turn their passion and skills into a successful business seamlessly. They've introduced the Pro Drawdown EOD, calculated at the end of each day, along with straightforward rules designed to assist traders in reaching their goals. Offering a variety of account sizes and rules tailored to individual traders' needs, UProfit ensures that every trader can find a suitable match to maximize their potential and achieve success in the market.